Union Pacific SD60M in Motion — Sterling, Illinois, 1996.

June 1996: It had been just over a year since Union Pacific absorbed Chicago & North Western.

I made this view of a westward UP train with SD60M 6276 in the lead.

A father with his young son on a bicycle look on in wonder.

This single frame was exposed with my Nikon F3T and 35PC (perspective control) lens on Kodachrome 25. The film’s slow speed combined with side lighting and minimum aperture of just f3.5 only allowed me a shutter speed of 1/250thof a second, which wasn’t fast enough to freeze the train’s motion in this broadside view.

I feel that the slight motion blur makes the photo because it conveys the speed and mass of the train in contrast to the relative fragility of its on-lookers.